GDANSK

TEACHERS*
PRESS
WRITING
MATHEMATICAL
The booklet is intended to provide practical help for
authors o f mathematical papers. It wUl be useful
PAPERS
both as a guide for beginners and as a reference book
for experienced writers.
IN ENGLISH
The first part o f the/booklet provides a useful collection
o f ready-made sentences and expressions occurring
in mathematical papers. The examples are divided a finaeiiMut yuide
into sections according to their use (in introductions,
definitions, theorem s, proofs, com ments, references
to the literature, acknowledgments, editorial correspon­
dence and referee’s reports). Typical errors are also
pointed out.

H ie second part concerns selected problems of English

grammar and usage, m ost often encountered by
mathematical writers. Just as in the first part, JERZY TRZECIAK
an abundance o f exam ples are presented, all of them
taken from the actual mathematical tests. Copy Editor
Institute of Mathematics
The index enables the reader to find many particular Polish Academy of Sciences
pieces o f inform ation scattered throughout the text

Jerzy Trzeciak, formerly o f Polish Scientific Publishers,

is now the senior copy editor at the Institute
o f Mathematics, Polish Academy o f Sciences. He is
responsible* for journals tnrjhirifrig studia Mafhrawatfra,
Fundamenta Mathematicae, Aeta Arithmetica and others.

Gdansk Teachers’ Press

ISBN 83-85694-02-1
Acknowledgments. The author is grateful to Professor Zofia Denkowska,
Professor Zdzislaw Skupieri and Daniel Davies for their helpful criticism.
Thanks are also due to Adam Mysior and Marcin Adamski for suggesting
several improvements, and to Hemyka Walas for her painstaking job
of typesetting the continuously varying manuscript.
Published by Gdanskie Wydawnictwo Oswiatowe
(Gdansk Teachers’ Press)
P.O. Box 59, 80-876 Gdansk 52, Poland
Cover design by Agnieszka Polak
Typeset by Hemyka Walas
Printed in Poland by Drukamia Orunska, Gdansk
© Copyright by Gdanskie Wydawnictwo Oswiatowe, 1993
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form
without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN 83-85694-02-1
C O N TE N TS
Part A: Phrases Used in Mathematical Texts
Abstract and introduction............................................................................... 4
Definition............................................................................................................ 6
Notation.............................................................................................................. 7
Property..............................................................................................................8
Assumption, condition, convention..............................................................10
Theorem: general remarks..............................................................................12
Theorem: introductory phrase......................................... •............................13
Theorem: formulation.....................................................................................13
Proof: beginning..............................................................................................14
Proof: arguments............................................................................................15
Proof: consecutive steps................................................................................. 16
Proof: “it is sufficient t o .....” ....................................................................... 17
Proof: “it is easily seen that .....” ................................................................. 18
Proof: conclusion and remarks.....................................................................18
References to the literature............................................................................19
Acknowledgments............................................................................................20
How to shorten the paper..............................................................................20
Editorial correspondence............................................................................... 21
Referee’s report................................................................................................21
Part B: Selected Problems of English Grammar
Indefinite article (a, ail, — ) .......................................................................... 23
Definite article (the).......................................................................................24
Article omission............................................................................................... 25
Infinitive............................................................................................................ 27
Ing-form............................................................................................................ 29
Passive voice.....................................................................................................31
Quantifiers........................................................................................................ 32
Number, quantity, size...................................................................................34
How to avoid repetition................................................................................. 38
Word order.......................................................................................................40
Where to insert a comma..............................................................................44
Some typical errors........................................................................................ 46
Index................................................................................................................. 48

Pa r t A: P hr ases Used in M a t h e m a t ic a l T e x t s
A B STR A C T A N D IN T R O D U C T IO N
We prove that in some families of compact a there are no universal elements.
It is also shown that .....
Some relevant counterexamples are indicated.
It is of interest to know whether..... We wish to investigate
We are interested in finding..... Our purpose is t o .....
It is natural to try to relate.....t o ......
This work was intended as an attempt to motivate (at motivating)
The aim of this paper is to bring together two areas in which.....
review some of the standard
facts o n .....
have compiled some basic facts ...
summarize without proofs the
relevant material o n .....
give a brief exposition o f .....
briefly sketch .....
set up notation and terminology.
discuss (study/ treat/ examine)
the case.....
Section 3 introduce the notion o f .....
In we
the third section develop the theory of .. „ Our example demonstrates rather strikingly that .....
[Note: paragraph wHTlook more closely at
^ section] will be concerned w ith.....
proceed with the study of ....
indicatehowthesetechniques
may be used t o .....
extend thejresults of ..... to . . . __
^OTve ah lntefesting formula Tor .....
it is shown th at.....
some of the recent results are
reviewed in a more general setting,
some applications are indicated,
our main results are stated and proved.
contains a brief summary (a discussion) o f .....
deals with (discusses) the case.....
is intended to motivate our investigation o f .....
Section 4 is devoted to the study o f .....
provides a detailed exposition o f .....
establishes the relation between.....
presents some preliminaries.
touch only a few aspects of the theory.
We will
restrict our attention (the discussion/ourselves) to ...
4 5
It is not our purpose to study.....
No attempt has been made here to develop.....
It is possible that..... but we will not develop this point here.
—£A more complete theory may be obtained b y .....
However, this topic exceeds the scope of this paper,
we will not use this fact in any essential way.
The basic (main) idea is to apply.....
geometric ingredient i s .....
The crucial fact is that the norm satisfies.....
Our proof involves looking a t .....
based on the concept o f .....
The proof is similar in spirit t o .....
adapted from.....
This idea goes back at least as far as [7].
We emphasize that.....
It is worth pointing out th at.....
The important point to note here is the form o f .....
The advantage of using.....lies in the fact that ......
The estimate We obtain in the course of proof seems to be of independent
interest.
Our theorem provides a natural and intrinsic characterization o f .....
Our proof makes no appeal t o .....
Our viewpoint sheds some new light o n .....
The choice o f .....seems to be the best adapted to our theory.
The problem is that.....
The main difficulty in carrying out this construction is that .....
In this case the method o f .....breaks down.
This class is not well adapted t o .....
Pointwise convergence presents a more delicate problem.
The results of this paper were announced without proofs in [8].
The detailed proofs will appear in [8] (elsewhere/in a forthcoming
publication).
For the proofs we refer the reader to [6].
It is to be expected th at.....
One may conjecture that .....
One may ask whether this is still true i f .....
One question still unanswered is whether.....
The affirmative solution would allow one t o .....
It would be desirable t o .....but we have not been able to do
this.
These results are far from being conclusive.
This question is at present far from being solved.
 Our method has the disadvantage of not being intrinsic. It is immaterial which M we choose to define F as long as M contains x
The solution falls short of providing an explicit formula. This product is independent of which member of g we choose to define it
What is still lacking is an explicit description o f ..... It is Proposition 8 that makes this definition allowable.
As for prerequisites, the reader is expected to be familiar w ith.....
Our definition agrees with the one given in [7] if u is
The first two chapters o f .....constitute sufficient preparation. with the classical one fo r.....
No preliminary knowledge o f .....is required. this coincides with our previously introduced
To facilitate access to the individual topics, the chapters are rendered as Note that terminology if K is convex,
self-contained as possible. this is in agreement with [7] for .....
For the convenience of the reader we repeat the relevant material from [7]
without proofs, thus making our exposition self-contained.
N O TA TIO N
We will denote by Z
D E F IN IT IO N Let us denote by Z the se t..... Write (Let/Set) f — ...
Let Z denote [Not: “Denote / = .....1
A set 5 is dense i f .....
The closure of A will be denoted by clA.
A set S is called (said to be) dense i f .....
We will use the symbol (letter) k to denote.....
We call a set dense i f .....
We call m the product measure. [Note: The term defined appears last.] We write H for the value o f .....
We will write the negation of p as ->p.
The function / is given (defined) by / = ..... The notation aRb means that .....
Let / be given (defined) by / = ..... Such cycles are called homologous (written c ~ cf).
We define T to be A B + C D .
Here
requiring / to be constant o n ..... Here and subsequently,
the requirement that / be constant on ... Throughout the proof, denotes
This map is defined by the map
[Note the infinitive.] In the sequel, stands for
imposing the following condition: ..... From now on,
The length of a sequence is, by definition, the number of We follow the notation of [8] (used in [8]).
The length of T, denoted by J(T), is defined to b e ..... Our notation differs (is slightly different) from that of [8].
By the length of T we mean..... Let us introduce the temporary notation F f for g fg .

/ i s .... With the notation / = .....,

, where , we have set / = With this notation, we have.....
Define (Let/Set) E = L f In the notation of [8, Ch. 7]
, / being the solution of .
with / satisfying..... If / is real, it is customary to write..... rather than.....
the behaviour of the family g defined as follows, For simplicity of notation, write / instead o f .....
We will consider the height of g (to be defined later) a n d ..... To (simplify/shorten) notation,
By abuse of notation, we use the same letter / for
To measure the growth of g we make the following definition. continue to write / for ...
For abbreviation, let / stand fo r.....
we shall call
We abbreviate Faub to bf.
In this way we obtain what will be referred to as the P-system.
is known as We denote it briefly by F. [Not: “shortly”]
We write it F for short (for brevity).
Since the norm of / is well defined. The Radon-Nikodym property (RNP for short) implies that
’ the definition of the norm is unambiguous (makes sense). We will write it simply x when no confusion can arise.

6 7
It will cause no confusion if we use the same letter to designate
a member of A and its restriction to K .
We shall write the above expression as
The above expression may be written as t = .....
We can write (4) in the form
The Greek indices label components of sections of E.
Print terminology:
The expression in italics (in italic type), in large type, in bold print;
in parentheses ( ) (= round brackets),
in brackets f ] (= square brackets),
in braces { } (= curly brackets), in angular brackets ( );
within the norm signs
Capital letters = upper case letters; small letters = lower case letters;
Gothic (German) letters; script (calligraphic) letters (e.g. T , Q)\
special Roman letters (e.g. R, N ) ^
Dot •, prime ', asterisk = star *, t ild e b a r " [over a symbol], hat ,
vertical stroke (vertical bar) |, slash (diagonal stroke/slant)/,
dash — , sharp #
Dotted line......... . dashed line---------- , wavy line ------------
P R O P ER TY
such that (with the property that) .....
[Not: “such an element that”]
with the following properties:.....
satisfying L f = .....
with N f = 1 (with coordinates x, y, z)
of norm 1 (of the form.....)
whose norm i s .....
all of whose subsets are.....
by means of which g can be computed
for which this is true
the (an) element at which g has a local maximum
described by the equations.....
given by L f = .....
depending only o n ..... (independent of
not in A
so small that (small enough that) .....
as above (as in the previous theorem)
so obtained
occurring in the cone condition
[Note the double “r” .]
|guaranteed by the assumption.....
8 9
we have just defined
we wish to study (we used in Chapter 7)
the (an) element to be defined later [= which will be defined]
in question
under study (consideration)
the constant C being independent o f ..... [= where C is
., the supremum being taken over all cubes
., the limit being taken in L.
is so chosen that.....
is to be chosen later.
is a suitable constant.
., where C is a conveniently chosen element of
involves the derivatives o f .....
ranges over all subsets o f .....
may be made arbitrarily small by ...
have (share) many of the properties o f .....
have still better smoothness properties.
lack (fail to have) the smoothness properties o f .....
still have norm 1.
not merely symmetric but actually self-adjoint,
not necessarily monotone,
both symmetric and positive-definite,
The operators A{ not continuous, nor do they satisfy (2).
[Note the inverse word order after “nor” .]
are neither symmetric nor positive-definite,
only nonnegative rather than strictly
positive, as one may have expected,
any self-adjoint operators, possibly even
unbounded,
still (no longer) self-adjoint,
not too far from being self-adjoint.
preceding theorem
indicated set [But adjectival clauses with
The above-mentioned group
prepositions come after a noun,
resulting region e.g. “the group defined in Section 1” .]
required (desired) element
Both X and Y are finite.
Neither X nor Y is finite.
X and Y are countable, but neither is finite.
Neither of them is finite. [Note: “Neither” refers to two alternatives.
None of the functions F, is finite.
X is not finite; nor (neither) is Y.

X is not finite, nor is Y countable. [Note the inversion.]
so is Y.
X is empty
but Y is not.
X belongs to Y so does Z.
but Z does not.
A S S U M P T IO N , C O N D IT IO N , C O N V E N T IO N
We will make (need) the following assumptions: .....
From now on we make the assumption:.....
The following assumption will be needed throughout the paper.
Our basic assumption is the following.
Unless otherwise stated (Until further notice) we assume that .....
In the remainder of this section we assume (require) g to b e .....
In order to get asymptotic results, it is necessary to put some restrictions
on / .
We shall make two standing assumptions on the maps under consideration.
It is required (assumed) that .....
The requirement on g is that .....
is subject to the condition Lg = 0.
., where g satisfies the condition Lg = 0.
is merely required to be positive.
the requirement that g be positive.
[Note the infinitive.]
Let us orient M by
requiring g to b e .....
imposing the condition: .....
for (provided/whenever/only in case) p ^ 1.
unless p = 1.
the condition (hypothesis) that .....
(4) holds
the more general assumption th at.....
under some further restrictions o n .....
additional (weaker) assumptions.
satisfies (fails to satisfy) the assumptions o f .....
has the desired (asserted) properties,
provides the desired diffeomorphism.
still satisfies (need not satisfy) the requirement that ...
meets this condition,
does not necessarily have this property,
satisfies all the other conditions for membership of X .
There is no loss of generality in assuming.....
Without loss (restriction) of generality we can assume.....
10
This involves no loss of generality.
, since otherwise.....
We can certainly assume that , for ..... [= because]
, for if not, we replace
. Indeed.......
Neither the hypothesis nor the conclusion is affected if we replace
By choosing b = a we may actually assume that .....
If / = 1, which we may assume, then.....
For simplicity (convenience) we ignore the dependence of F on g.
[E.g. in notation]
It is convenient to choose.....
We can assume, by decreasing k if necessary, that .....
F meets S transversally, say at F ( 0).
There exists a minimal element, say n, of F.
G acts on H as a multiple (say n) of V.
For definiteness (To be specific), consider.....
is not particularly restrictive,
is surprisingly mild.
This condition admits (rules out/excludes) elements o f .....
is essential to the proof.
cannot be weakened (relaxed/improved/omitted/
dropped).
The theorem is true if “open” is deleted from the hypotheses.
The assumption.... is superfluous (redundant/unnecessarily restrictive).
We will now show liow to dispense with the assumption on .....
Our lemma does not involve any assumptions about curvature.
We have been working under the assumption that .....
Now suppose that this is no longer so.
To study the general case, take.....
. For the general case, set .....
Tlie map / will be viewed (regarded/thought of) as a functor
realizing .
think of L as being constant.
From now on we regard / as a map from.....
tacitly assume that .....
It is understood that r ^ 1.
We adopt (adhere to) the convention that 0/0 = 0.
11
 TH EO R EM : IN T R O D U C T O R Y PHRASE
TH EO R EM : GENERAL REMARKS
We have thus proved..... ,xr rephrase Theorem 8 as follows.
an extension (a fairly straightforward
Summarizing, we have..... can now state the analogue o f .....
generalization/a sharpened version/
formulate our main results.
a refinement) o f .....
an analogue o f ..... We are thus led to the following strengthening of Theorem 6: .....
is a reformulation (restatement) o f ..... The remainder of this section will be devoted to the proof o f .....
in terms o f .....
analogous to ..... The continuity of A is established by our next theorem.
This theorem a partial converse o f ..... The following result may be proved in much the same way as Theorem 6.
an answer to a question raised b y ..... Here are some elementary properties of these concepts.
deals with..... Let us mention two important consequences of the theorem.
ensures the existence o f ..... We begin with a general result on such operators.
expresses the equivalence o f .....
provides a criterion fo r..... [Note: Sentences of the type “We now have the following lemma’ ,
yields information about ..... carrying no information, can in general be cancelled.]
makes it legitimate to apply.....
The theorem states (asserts/shows) that ..... TH EO R EM : FO RM ULA TIO N
Roughly (Loosely) speaking, the formula says that
I f .....and if .... ., then.....
to saying that .. Suppose that .... provided m ^ 1.
When / is open, (3.7) just amounts
to the fact that Let M be unless m = 1.
Assume that . Then . ,
Write with g a constant
Here is another way of stating (c): ..... satisfying.....
Another way of stating (c) is to say: .....
Furthermore (Moreover), ....
An equivalent formulation of (c) is: .....
In fact, ..... [= To be more precise]
Theorems 2 and 3 may be summarized by saving that .....
Accordingly,..... [= Thus]
Assertion (ii) is nothing but the statement that .....
Geometrically speaking, the hypothesis is that .....: part of the conclusion Given any / ^ 1 suppose that .... Then......
is that .....
the hypotheses o f .....
The interest Let P satisfy the above assumptions. Then
in the assertion.....
The principal significance of the lemma is that it allows one to N (P ) = 1.
The point
Let assumptions 1-5 hold. Then.....
The theorem gains in interest if we realize that Under the above assumptions,.....
we drop the assumption Under the same hypotheses.......
The theorem is still true if
still holds it is only assumed that .. Under the conditions stated above,.....
Under the assumptions of Theorem 2 with “convergent”
If we take / = ..... the standard lemma replaced by “weakly convergent” , .....
we recover
Replacing / by - / , [7, Theorem 5]. Under the hypotheses of Theorem 5, if moreover.....
This specializes to the result of [7] if / = g. Equality holds in (8) if and only i f .....
be needed in The following conditions are equivalent: ....
This result will prove extremely useful in Section 8. [Note: Expressions like “the following inequality holds” can in
not be needed until general be dropped.]

13
12
 PROOF: BEGINNING PROOF: ARGUMENTS
prove (sliow/recall/observe) that ..... definition, ..... , which follows from .....
We prove a reduced form of the theorem, the definition o f ..... as was described
first assumption,..... But f = g
Let us outline (give the main ideas of) the proof, (shown/ mentioned/
examine B f . the compactness o f .... noted) i n .....
By Taylor’s formula,.....
To see (prove) this, let / = ..... a similar argument, ..... shows that .....
But A = B. We prove this as follows. the above,..... yields (gives/
This is proved by writing g = ..... the lemma below, ..... Theorem 4 now implies) / =
To this end, consider..... continuity,..... leads to / = .....
[= For this purpose; not: “To this aim”
We first compute I f . L f = 0. [Not: Since....., then ..
To do this, take.....
For this purpose, we set ..... Since / is compact, we have L f = 0.
it follows that L f = 0.
To deduce (3) from (2), take..... we see (conclude) that L f = 0.
We claim that .....Indeed, ...... But L f = 0 since / is compact.
We begin by proving..... (by recalling the notion of .....) We have L f = 0, because.... [+ a longer explanation]
Our proof starts with the observation that ..... We must have L f = 0, for otherwise we can replace.....
The procedure is to find..... As / is compact we have L f = 0.
The proof consists in the construction o f ..... Therefore L f = 0 by Theorem 6.
That L f — 0 follows from Theorem 6.
straightforward (quite involved),
by induction on n. this we conclude (deduce/see) that ..
The proof is we have (obtain) M = N.
left to the reader.
based on the following observation. From (5) [Note: without “that”]
what has already
been proved, it follows that .....
The main (basic) idea of the proof is to take ..... it may be concluded that .....
falls naturally into three parts, According to (On account of) the above remark, we have M = N .
The proof
will be divided into 3 steps.
It follows that , AT
We have divided the proof into a sequence of lemmas. Hence (Thus/Consequently,/Therefore) ~ ’
the assertion of the lemma is false. [hence = from this; thus = in this way; therefore = for this reason;
Suppose
, Lcontrary
^ U X ltiC ll J to Vour
/ U l claim, that
v illit .....
••
it follows that = from the above it follows that]
Conversely (To obtain a contradiction), suppose that
On the contrary, and so M = N.
This gives M = N. and consequently M = N .
Suppose the lemma were false. Then we could find We thus get M = N. and, in consequence, M = N.
there existed anx ... The result is M = N. F is compact, and hence bounded,
we would have . (3) now becomes M = N.
If x were not in B , which gives (implies/
there would be This clearly forces M = N.
it were true that ..... yields) M = N.
[Not: “what gives”]
Assume the formula holds for the degree k; we will prove it for k + 1.
Assuming (5) to hold for A;, we will prove it for k + 1- F = G = H , the last equality being a consequence of Theorem 7.
which is due to the fact that .....
We give the proof only for the case n = 3; the other cases are left to the
reader. Since....., (2) shows that ..... , by (4).
We only give the main ideas of the proof. We conclude from (5) that ....., hence that ..... , and finally that

14 15
 Repeated application of Lemma 6 enables us to write
The equality / = <;, which is part of the conclusion of Theorem 7, implies We now proceed by induction.
that..... We can now proceed analogously to the proof o f .....
As in the proof of Theorem 8, equation (4) gives.....
Analysis similar to that in the proof of Theorem 5 shows We next claim (show/prove that) .....
sharpen these results and prove that
that..... [Not: “similar as in”]
A passage to the limit similar to the above implies that ..... claim is that.....
Similarly (Likewise),.....
Our next goal is to determine the number of ....
Similar arguments apply to the case..... objective is to evaluate the integral I.
The same reasoning applies concern will be the behaviour o f .....

The same conclusion can be drawn fo r..... We now turn to the case / ^ 1.
This follows by the same method as i n ..... We are now in a position to show..... [= We are able to]
The term T f can be handled in much the same way, the only difference We proceed to show that .....
being in the analysis o f ..... The task is now to find.....
In the same manner we can see that ..... Having disposed of this preliminary step, we can now return to
The rest of the proof runs as before.
We wish to arrange that / be as smooth as possible.
We now apply this argument again, with I replaced by J, to obtain.....
[Note the infinitive.]
We are thus looking for the family.....
PROOF: C O N SEC U TIVE STEPS We have to construct .....
evaluate .....
Consider..... Define compute..... In order to get this inequality, it will be necessary to
Choose..... Let Let us apply the formula t o ..... is convenient t o .....
F ix ..... Set suppose for the moment . To deal with / / ,
regard s as fixed and ..... To estimate the other term, we note that
For the general case,
[Note: The imperative mood is used when you order the reader to do
something, so you should not write e.g. “Give an example o f .....” if
you mean “ We give an example o f .....”] PROOF: “IT IS S U FFIC IEN T TO
Adding g to the left-hand side show (prove) that .....
Subtracting (3) from (5) It suffices to |make the following observation.
is sufficient
Writing (Taking) h = H f yields (gives) h = ..... use (4) together with the observation that .....
Substituting (4) into (6) we obtain (get/have) f = g
Combining (3) with (6) We need only consider 3 cases:.....
[Note: without “that”] We only need to show that .....
Combining these we conclude (deduce/see) that
[E.g. these inequalities] It remains to prove that ..... (to exclude the case when .....)
we can assert that .....
Replacing (2) by (3) we can rewrite (5) a s ..... What is left is to show that.....
Letting n —►oo We are reduced to proving (4) for .....
Applying (5)
We are left with the task of determining.....
Interchanging / and g
The only point remaining concerns the behaviour o f .....
[Note: The ing-form is either the subject of a sentence (“Adding The proof is completed by showing that .....
gives” ), or requires the subject “we” (“Adding ..... we obtain” ); We shall have established the lemma if we prove the following: .....
do not write e.g. “Adding.... the proof is complete.”] If we prove that ....., the assertion follows.
We continue in this fashion obtaining (to obtain) / = ..... The statement 0 ( g ) = 1 will be proved once we prove the lemma below.
We may now integrate k times to conclude that .....
17
16
 PROOF: “IT IS EASILY SEEN THAT Note that we have actually proved that.....
[= We have proved more, namely that.....]
clear (evident/immediate/obvious) that
It is
easily seen that ..... We have used only the fact th at.....
easy to check th a t..... the existence of only the right-hand derivative.
a simple matter t o ..... For f = 1 ^ *s no longer true that.....
We see (check) at once that ..... , which is clear from (3). the argument breaks down.
F is easily seen (checked) to be smooth. , as is easy to check.
The proof strongly depended on the assumption that .....
It follows easily (immediately) th at..... Note that we did not really have to use.....; we could have applied.....
Of course (Clearly/Obviously),..... For more details we refer the reader to [7].
The proof is straightforward (standard/immediate). The details are left to the reader.
An easy computation (A trivial verification) shows th at..... We leave it to the reader to verify th at..... [Note: “it” necessary]
(2) makes it obvious that ..... [= By (2) it is obvious that] This finishes the proof, the detailed verification of (4) being left to the
reader.
The factor G f poses no problem because G i s .....
REFERENCES T O T H E LITER ATU RE
PROOF: CO N C LU SIO N A N D REM ARKS
(see for instance [7, Th. 1]) (see [7] and the references given there)
proves the theorem,
completes the proof, more details)
....., which establishes the formula, (see [Ka2] for the definition o f .....)
[Not: “what” is the desired conclusion, the complete bibliography)
This is our claim (assertion). [Not: “thesis”]
gives (4) when substituted in (5) (combined with (5)). The best general reference here was proved by Lax [8].
The standard work o n ..... is This can be found in
the proof is complete.
this is precisely the assertion of the lemma, The classical work here Lax [7, Ch. 2].
and I the lemma follows.
(3) is proved. is due to Strang [8].
/ = g as claimed (required). goes back to the work o f .....
f as far as [8].
This contradicts our assumption (the fact th at.....). was motivated by [7].
This construction
....., contrary to (3). generalizes that of [7].
....., which is impossible. [Not: “what is”] follows [7].
....., which contradicts the maximality o f ..... is adapted from [7] (appears in [7|).
....., a contradiction. has previously been used by Lax [7].
The proof for G is similar. a recent account of the theory
G may be handled in much the same way. a treatment of a more general case
Similar considerations apply to G. a fuller (thorough) treatment
For a deeper discussion o f ..... we refer the reader to [7].
works (remains valid) fo r .....
The same proof still goes (fails) when we drop the assumption direct constructions along more
classical lines
The method of proof carries over to domains..... yet another method
The proof above gives more, namely / i s ..... We introduce the notion o f .... , following Kato [7].
A slight change in the proof actually shows that We follow [Ka] in assuming that .....

19
 Taking into account (4) —►By (4)
The main results of this paper were announced in [7]. By virtue of (4) By (4)
Similar results have been obtained independently by Lax and are to be By relation (4) ^ By (4)
published in [7].
In the interval [0,1] ^ In [0,1]
A C K N O W LED G M E N TS There exists a function / £ C ( X ) There exists / e C ( X )
For every point For every p e M
wishes to express his thanks (gratitude) t o ..... F is defined by the formula F (x ) = ..... **+ F is defined by F ( x ) = .....
The author
is greatly indebted t o .....
Theorem 2 and Theorem 5 ^ Theorems 2 and 5
his active interest in the publication of this paper, This follows from (4), (5), (6) and (7) This follows from (4)-(7)
suggesting the problem and for many stimulating conversations.
For details see [3], [4] and [5] ^ For details see [3]—[5]
several helpful comments concerning.....
for
drawing the author’s attention t o ..... The derivative with respect to t The ^-derivative
pointing out a mistake i n ..... A function of class C2 ^ A C2 function
his collaboration in proving Lemma 4.
For arbitrary x For all x (For every x)
The author gratefully acknowledges the many helpful suggestions o f ..... In the case n = 5 For n = 5
during the preparation of the paper. This leads to a contradiction with the maximality of /
This is part of the author’s Ph.D. thesis, written under the supervision ....., contrary to the maximality of /
o f .....at the University o f ...... Applying Lemma 1 we conclude that *++ Lemma 1 shows that
The author wishes to thank the University o f ....., where the paper was ....., which completes the proof ^ ..... ■
written, for financial support (for the invitation and hospitality).
EDITO R IA L CORRESPONDENCE
H O W T O SHO RTEN T H E PAPER I would like to submit the enclosed manuscript “.....”
General rules: I am submitting for publication in Studia Mathematica.
1. Remember: you are writing for an expert. Cross out all that is trivial or routine. I have also included a reprint of my article.....for the convenience of the
2. Avoid repetition: do not repeat the assumptions of a theorem at the beginning referee.
of its proof, or a complicated conclusion at the end of the proof. Do not repeat
the assumptions of a previous theorem in the statement of a next one (instead,
I wish to withdraw my paper.....as I intend to make a major
write e.g. “Under the hypotheses of Theorem 1 with / replaced by g, ..... ” ).
revision of it.
Do not repeat the same formula— use a label instead.
I regret any inconvenience this may have caused you.
3. Check aU formulas: is each of them necessary? I am very pleased that the paper will appear in Fundamenta.
Phrases you can cross out: Thank you very much for accepting my paper for publication i n .....
We denote by R the set of all real numbers. Please find enclosed two copies of the revised version.
We have the following lemma. As the referee suggested, I inserted a reference to the theorem
The following lemma will be useful. o f .....
..... the following inequality is satisfied: We have followed the referee’s suggestions.
Phrases you can shorten (see also p. 38): I have complied with almost all suggestions of the referee.
Let £ be an arbitrary but fixed positive number ^ Fix e > 0
Let us fix arbitrarily x £ X x £ X REFEREE'S REPORT
Let us first observe that ^ First observe that The author proves the interesting result that .....
We will first compute ^ We first compute
The proof is short and simple, and the article well written.
Hence we have x = 1 Hence x —1 The results presented are original.
Hence it follows that x = 1 Hence x = 1
21
The paper is a good piece of work on a subject that attracts
Pa r t B: S elected P r o b l e m s o f English G r a m m a r
considerable attention.
recommend it for publication in IN D E F IN IT E ARTICLE (a, an, — )
It is a pleasure to c.
j g^jQjjgjy otudia Mathematica.
Note: You use “a” or “an” depending on pronunciation and not
The only remark I wish to make is that condition B should be formulated spelling, e.g. a unit, an x.
more carefully.
A few minor typographical errors are listed below. 1. Instead of the number "one” :
I have indicated various corrections on the manuscript. The four centres lie in a plane.
The results obtained are not particularly surprising and will be A chapter will be devoted to the study of expanding maps.
of limited interest. For this, we introduce an auxiliary variable z.
correct but only moderately interesting,
The results are 2. Meaning “member of a class of objects” , “some” , “one of” :
rather easy modifications of known facts.
The example is worthwhile but not of sufficient interest for a research Then D becomes a locally convex space with dual space D f.
article. The right-hand side of (4) is then a bounded function.
The English of the paper needs a thorough revision. This is easily seen to be an equivalence relation.
The paper does not meet the standards of your journal. Theorem 7 has been extended to a class of boundary value problems.
as stated, The transitivity is a consequence of the fact that .....
Theorem 2 is false
in this generality. Let us now state a corollary of Lebesgue’s theorem fo r.....
Lemma 2 is known (see.....) After a change of variable in the integral we get .....
Accordingly, I recommend that the paper be rejected. We thus obtain the estimate..... with a constant C.
in the plural:
The existence of partitions of unity may be proved b y .....
The definition of distributions implies th a t.....
....., with suitable constants.
....., where G and F are differential operators.
3. In definitions of classes of objects
(i.e. when there are many objects with the given property):
A fundamental solution is a function satisfying.....
We call C a module of ellipticity.
A classical example of a constant C such that .....
We wish to find a solution of (6) which is of the form.....
in the plural:
The elements of D are often called test functions.

the set of points with distance 1 from K

all functions with compact support
The integral may be approximated by sums of the form
Taking in (4) functions v which vanish in U we obtain ..
Let / and g be functions such that .....

22 23
 In the plural— when you are referring to each element of a class:
Direct sums exist in the category of abelian groups.
In particular, closed sets are Borel sets.
Borel measurable functions are often called Borel mappings.
This makes it possible to apply ^-results to functions in any Hp.
If you are referring to all elements o f a class, you use “the":
The real measures form a subclass of the complex ones.
In front of an adjective which is intended to mean
“having this particular quality":
This map extends to all of M in an obvious fashion.
A remarkable feature of the solution should be stressed.
Section 1 gives a condensed exposition o f .....
describes in a unified manner the recent results
A simple computation gives..... * [without “the”]
Combining (2) and (3) we obtain, with a new constant C , .....
A more general theory must be sought to account for these
irregularities.
The equation (3) has a unique solution g for every / .
But: (3) has the unique solution g = A B f .
D E F IN IT E ARTICLE (the)
1. Meaning “mentioned earlier” , “that” :
Let A C X . If aB = 0 for every B intersecting the set A , then....
Define exp a; = Et l ji\. The series can easily be shown to converge.
2. In front of a noun (possibly preceded by an adjective) referring
to a single, uniquely determined object (e.g. in definitions):
Let / be the linear form g->(9,n
defined by (2). [If there is only one.]
u = 1 in the compact set K of all points at distance 1 from L.
We denote by B ( X ) the Banach space of all linear operators in X .
....., under the usual boundary conditions.
....., with the natural definitions of addition and multiplication.
Using the standard inner product we may identify.....
3. In the construction: the + property (or another characteristic) + of +
object:
The continuity of / follows from .....
The existence of test functions is not evident.
There is a fixed compact set containing the supports of all the fK
Then x is the centre of an open ball U.
The intersection of a decreasing family of such sets is convex.
24
But: Every nonempty open set in Rk is a union of disjoint boxes.
[If you wish to stress that it is some union of not too well
specified objects.]
4. In front of a cardinal number if it embraces all objects considered:
The two groups have been shown to have the same number of
generators. [Two groups only were mentioned.]
Each of the three products on the right of (4) satisfies.....
[There are exactly 3 products there.]
5. In front of an ordinal number:
The first Poisson integral in (4) converges to g.
The second statement follows immediately from the first.
6. In front of surnames used attributively:
the Dirichlet problem Taylor’s formula
the Taylor expansion But:
the 'Gauss theorem a Banach space
7. In front of a noun in the plural if you are referring to a class of objects
as a whole, and not to particular members of the class:
The real measures form a subclass of the complex ones.
This class includes the Helson sets.
ARTICLE O M ISSIO N
1. In front of nouns referring to activities:
Application of Definition 5.9 gives (45).
Repeated application (use) of (4.8) shows that .....
The last formula can be derived by direct consideration of ....
A is the smallest possible extension in which differentiation
is always possible.
Using integration >by parts we obtain.....
If we apply induction to (4), we g et.....
Addition of (3) and (4) gives.....
This reduces the solution to division by Px.
Comparison of (5) and (6) shows that.....
[Note: In constructions with “of” you can also use “the” .]
2. In front of nouns referring to properties if you mention no
particular object:
In question of uniqueness one usually has to consider.....
By continuity, (2) also holds when / = 1.
By duality we easily obtain the following theorem.
Here we do not require translation invariance.
25
3. After certain expressions with "of” :
a type of convergence the hypothesis of positivity
a problem of uniqueness the method of proof
the condition of ellipticity the point of increase
4. In front of numbered objects:
It follows from Theorem 7 that .....
Section 4 gives a concise presentation o f .....
Property (iii) is called the triangle inequality.
This has been proved in part (a) of the proof.
But: the set of solutions of the form (4.7)
To prove the estimate (5.3) we first extend.....
We thus obtain the inequality (3). [Or: inequality (3)]
The asymptotic formula (3.6) follows from .....
Since the region (2.9) is in 17, we have.....
5. To avoid repetition:
the order and symbol of a distribution
the associativity and commutativity of A
the direct sum and direct product
the inner and outer factors of / [Note the plural.]
But: a deficit or an excess
6. In front of surnames in the possessive:
Minkowski’s inequality, but: the Minkowski inequality
Fefferman and Stein’s famous theorem,
more usual: the famous Fefferman-Stein theorem
7. In some expressions describing a noun, especially after “with” ard "of':
an algebra with unit e; an operator with domain H 2; a solution
with vanishing Cauchy data; a cube with sides parallel to the
axes; a domain with smooth boundary; an equation with constant
coefficients; a function with compact support; random variables
with zero expectation
the equation of motion; the velocity of propagation;
an element of finite order; a solution of polynomial growth;
a ball of radius 1; a function of norm p
But: elements of the form / = . . .
Let B be a Banach space with a weak symplectic form w.
Two random variables with a common distribution.
8. After “to have”
F has finite norm. But: F has a finite norm not exceeding 1.
compact support. a compact support contained in I.
26
a zero of order at least 2
rank 2.
at the origin,
F has cardinality c. F has a density g.
absolute value 1.
[Unless g has appeared
determinant zero.
earlier; then: F has density g.]
9. In expressions with “as” :
Any random variable can be taken as coordinate variable on Y.
Here t is interpreted as area or volume.
We show that G is a group with composition as group operation.
But: G is well defined as the integral of / over (7.
10. In front of the name of a mathematical discipline:
This idea comes from game theory (homological algebra).
But: in the theory of distributions
11. Other examples:
We can assume that G is in diagonal form.
Then A is deformed into B by pushing it at constant speed along
the integral curves of X .
G is now viewed as a set, without group structure.
INFINITIVE
1. Indicating aim or intention:
To prove the theorem, we first le t ....
to study the group of .....
We now apply (5) to derive the following theorem,
to obtain an x with norm not exceeding 1.
Here are some examples to show how.....
2. In constructions with “too” and “enough":
This method is too complicated to be used here.
This case is important enough to be stated separately.
3. Indicating that one action leads to another one:
We now apply Theorem 7 to get N f = 0. [ = .....and we get N f = 0]
Insert (2) into (3) to find that .....
4. In constructions like “we may assume M to b e .....":
We may assume M to be compact.
We define K to be the section of H over S.
If we take the contour G to lie in {7, then .....
We extend / to be homogeneous of degree 1.
The class A is defined by requiring all the functions / to satisfy .....
Partially order P by declaring X < Y to mean that .....
27
5. In constructions like “Af is assumed to b e .....
is assumed (expected/found/considered/taken/
claimed) to be open,
M will be chosen to contain 0.
can be taken to be a constant.
can easily be shown to have..... [Note: “easily” after “can”]
is also found to be of class S.
This investigation is likely to produce good results.
[= It is very probable it will]
The close agreement of the six elements is unlikely to be
a coincidence. [= is probably not]
6. In the structure “for this to happen” :
For this to happen, F must be compact.
[= In order that this happens]
For the last estimate to hold, it is enough to assume.....
Then for such a map to exist, we must have.....
7. As the subject of a sentence:
To see that this is not a symbol is fairly easy.
[Or: It is fairly easy to see that.....]
To choose a point at random in the interval [0,1] is a conceptual
experiment with an obvious intuitive meaning.
To say that u is maximal means simply that .....
After expressions with "it”:
It is necessary (useful/very important) to consider .....
It makes sense to speak o f .....
It is therefore of interest to look at .. .
8. After “be” :
Our goal (method/approach/procedure/objective/aim) is to find.....
The problem (difficulty) here is to construct .....
9. With nouns and with superlatives, in the place of a relative clause:
The theorem to be proved is the following. [= which will be proved]
This will be proved by the method to be described in Section 6.
For other reasons, to be discussed in Chapter 4, we have to ....
He was the first to propose a complete theory o f .....
They appear to be the first to have suggested the now accepted
interpretation o f .....
10. After certain verbs:
These properties led him to suggest that .....
They believe to have discovered .....
Lax claims to have obtained a formula for .....
This map turns out to satisfy .....
28
At first glance M appears to differ from N in two major ways: .....
A more sophisticated argument enables one to prove that .....
[Note: “enable” requires “one” , “us” etc.]
He proposed to study that problem. [Or: He proposed studying.....]
We make G act trivially on V.
Let / satisfy (2). [Not: “satisfies”]
We need to consider the following three cases.
We need not consider this case separately.
[“need to” in affirmative clauses, without “to” in negative
clauses; also note: “we only need to consider” , but: “we
need only consider”]
ING-FORM
1. As the subject of a sentence (note the absence of “the” ):
Repeating the previous argument and using (3) leads to .....
Since taking symbols commutes with lifting, A is .....
Combining Proposition 5 and Theorem 7 gives .....
2 . After prepositions:
After making a linear transformation, we may assume that .....
In passing from (2) to (3) we have ignored the factor n.
In deriving (4) we have made use o f .....
On substituting (2) into (3) we obtain .....
Before making some other estimates, we prove.....
Z enters X without meeting x = 0.
Instead of using the Fourier method we can multiply.....
In addition to illustrating how our formulas work, it provides.....
Besides being very involved, this proof gives no information on .....
This set is obtained by letting n —►oo.
It is important to pay attention to domains of definition
when trying to .....
The following theorem is the key to constructing .....
The reason for preferring (1) to (2) is simply that .....
3. In certain expressions with “of” :
The idea of combining (2) and (3) came from.....
The problem considered there was that of determining WF(w) for.....
We use the technique of extending .....
being very involved.
This method has the disadvantage of requiring that / be positive.
[Note the infinitive.]
Actually, S has the much stronger property of being convex.
29
4. After certain verbs, especially with prepositions:
We begin by analyzing (3).
We succeeded (were successful) in proving (4).
[Not: “succeeded to prove”]
We next turn to estimating .....
They persisted in investigating the case.....
We are interested in finding a solution o f .....
We were surprised at finding out that .....
[Or: surprised to find out]
Their study resulted in proving the conjecture fo r.....
The success of our method will depend on proving that .....
To compute the norm o f .....amounts to finding ......
We should avoid using (2) here, since.....
[Not: “avoid to use”]
We put off discussing this problem to Section 5.
It is worth noting that ..... [Not: “worth to note”]
It is worth while discussing here this phenomenon.
[Or: worth while to discuss; “worth while” with ing-forms is
best avoided as it often leads to errors.]
It is an idea worth carrying out.
[Not: “worth while carrying out” , nor: “worth to carry out”]
After having finished proving (2), we will turn t o .....
[Not: “finished to prove”]
(2) needs handling with greater care.
One more case merits mentioning here.
In [7] he mentions having proved this for / not in S.
5. Present Participle in a separate clause (note that the subjects
of the main clause and the subordinate clause must be the same):
We show that / satisfies (2), thus completing the analogy with ..
Restricting this to i?, we can define .....
[Not: “Restricting....., the lemma follows” . The lemma does
not restrict!]
The set A , being the union of two continua, is connected.
6. Present Participle describing a noun:
We need only consider paths starting at 0.
We interpret / as a function with image having support i n .....
We regard / as being defined o n .....
7. In expressions which can be rephrased using "where” or "since” :
J is defined to equal A /, the function / being as in (3).
[= where / i s .....]
This is a special case of (4), the space X here being B (K ) .
We construct 3 maps of the form (5), each of them satisfying (8).
....., the limit being assumed to exist for every x.
30
The ideal is defined by m = . . . , it being understood that .....
F being continuous, we can assume that ..... [= Since F is .....]
..... (it being impossible to make A and B intersect)
[= since it is impossible]
[Do not write “a function being an element of X ” if you mean
“a function which is an element of X ” .]
8. In expressions which can be rephrased as "the fact that X is .....” :
Note that M being cyclic implies F is cyclic.
The probability of X being rational equals 1/2.
In addition to / being convex, we require that .....
PASSIVE VOICE
1. Usual passive voice:
This theorem was proved by Milnor in 1976.
In items 2-6, passive voice structures replace sentences with subject “we” or
impersonal constructions of other languages.
2. Replacing the structure "we do something” :
This identity is established by observing that .....
This difficulty is avoided above.
When this is substituted in (3), an analogous description of K
is obtained.
Nothing is assumed concerning the expectation of X .
3. Replacing the structure “we prove that X is” :
is easily shown to have.....
M
may be said to be regular if .
This equation is known to hold fo r.....
4. Replacing the construction “we give an object X a structure Y " :
Note that E can be given a complex structure b y .....
The letter A is here given a bar to indicate that .....
5. Replacing the structure “we act on something” :
This order behaves well when g is acted upon by an operator.
F can be thought of as .....
So all the terms of (5) are accounted for.
This case is met with in diffraction problems.
The preceding observation, when looked at from a more general
point of view, leads t o .....
In the physical context already referred to, K i s .....
31
6. Meaning “which will be (proved etc.)” :
Before stating the result to be proved, we give.....
This is a special case of convolutions to be introduced in Chapter 8.
We conclude with two simple lemmas to be used mainly i n .....
Q U A N TIFIER S
This implies that A contains all open subsets of U.
all y with Gy — 1.
Let B be the collection of all transforms F of the form
all A such that .....
F is defined at all points of X .
for all n ^ 0; for all m which have.....; for all other m;
for all but a finite number of indices i
X contains all the boundary except the origin.
The integral is taken over all of X .
all extend to a neighbourhood of U.
E , F and G all have their supports in U.
are all zero at x.
are all equal.
There exist functions i?, all of whose poles are in 17, with .....
Each of the following 9 conditions implies all the others.
Such an x exists iff all the intervals A x have .....
For every g in X (not in X ) there exists an N .....
[But: for all / and g, for any two maps / and g\ “every”
is followed by a singular noun.]
To every / there corresponds a unique g such that .....
Every invariant subspace of X is of the form....
[Do not write: “Every subspace is not of the form .....”
if you mean: “No subspace is of the form.....” ;
“every” must be followed, by an affirmative
statement.]
Thus / ^ 0 at almost every point of X .
Since A n = 0 for each n, ..... [Each = every, considered separately]
Each term in this series is either 0 or 1.
F is bounded on each bounded set.
Each of these four integrals is finite.
These curves arise from....., and each consists of .....
There remain four intervals of length 1/16 each.
X assumes values 0, 1, . . . , 9, each with probability 1/10.
F\, . . . , Fn are each defined in the interval [0,1].
Those n disjoint boxes are translates of each other.
32
If K is now any compact subset of H , there exists.....
[Any = whatever you like; write “for all x ” , “for every x” if you
just mean a quantifier.]
Every measure can be completed, so whenever it is convenient, we may
assume that any given measure is complete.
There is a subsequence such that.....
There exists an x with.....
[Or: there exists rc, but: there is an x]
There are sets satisfying (2) but not (3).
There is only one such / .
There is a unique function / such that .....
Each / lies in zA for some A (at least one A j
exactly one A/at most one A).
Note that some of the X n may be repeated.
F has no fixed vector (no pole) in U. [Or: no poles]
F has no limit point in U (hence none in K ).
Call a set dense if its closure contains no nonempty open subset.
If no two members of A have an element in common, then.....
No two of the spaces X , Y, and Z are isomorphic.
It can be seen that no x has more than one inverse.
In other words, for no real x does limFn(a:) exist.
[Note the inversion after the negative clause.]
If there is no bounded functional such that .....
..... provided none of the sums is of the form.....
Let A n be a sequence of positive integers none of which is one less than
a power of two.
If there is an / such that ....., we put ..... If there are (is) none, we
define.....
None of these are (is) possible.
Both / and g are obtained b y .....
[Or: f and g are both obtained]
For both C°° and analytical categories,.....
C behaves covariantly with respect to maps of both X and G.
We now apply (3) to both sides of (4).
Both (these/the) conditions are restrictions only on .....
[Note: “the” after “both”]
C lies on no segment both of whose endpoints are in K .
Two consecutive elements do not belong both to A
or both to B.
Both its sides are convex. [Or: Its sides are both convex.]
B and C are positive numbers, not both 0.
Choose points x in M and y in N , both close to 2 , and .....
We show how this method works in 2 cases. In both, C i s .....
33
In either case, it is clear that ..... [= In both cases]
Each / can be expressed in either of the forms (1) and (2).
[= in any of the two forms]
The density of X + Y is given by either of the two integrals.
The two classes coincide if X is compact. In that case we write C ( X ) for
either of them.
Either / or g must be bounded.
Let u and v be two distributions neither of which i s .....
[Use “neither” when there are two alternatives.]
This is true for neither of the two functions.
Neither statement is true.
In neither case can / be smooth.
[Note the inversion after a negative clause.]
He proposes two conditions, but neither is satisfactory.
NU M B ER , Q U A N T IT Y , SIZE
1. Cardinal numbers:
A and B are also F-functions, any two of A, B, and C being
independent.
the multi-index with all entries zero except the kth which is one
the last k entries zero
This shows that there are no two points a and b such th at.....
There are three that the reader must remember. [= three of them]
We have defined A, B, and C, and the three sets satisfy....
For the two maps defined in Section 3, .....
[“The” if only two maps are defined there.]
R is concentrated at the n points X\, . . . , x n defined above.
for at least (at most) one k; with norm at least equal to 2
There are at most 2 such r in (0,1).
There is a unique map satisfying (4).
(4) lias a unique solution g for each / .
But: (4) has the unique solution g = A B / .
(4) has one and only one solution.
Precisely r of the intervals are closed.
In Example 3 only one of the xj is positive.
If p = 0 then there are an additional m arcs.
Ordinal numbers:
The first two are simpler than the third.
Let Si be the first of the remaining Sj.
The nth trial is the last.
X\ appears at the (k + l)th place.
34
The gain up to and including the nth trial is .....
The elements of the third and fourth rows are in I.
[Note the plural.]
F has a zero of at least third order at x.
3. Fractions:
Two-thirds of its diameter is covered b y .....
But: Two-thirds of the gamblers are ruined.
G is half the sum of the positive roots.
[Note: Only “half” can be used with or without “of” .]
On the average, about half the list will be tested.
J contains an interval of half its length in which.....
F is greater by a half (a third).
The other player is half (one third) as fast.
We divide J in half.
All sides were increased by the same proportion.
About 4 0 percent of the energy is dissipated.
A positive percentage of summands occurs in all the k
partitions.
4. Smaller (greater) than:
greater (less) than k.
much (substantially) greater than k.
no greater (smaller) than k.
n is
greater (less) than or equal to k.
[Not: “greater or equal to”]
strictly less than k.
All points at a distance less than K from A satisfy (2).
We thus obtain a graph of no more than k edges.
This set has fewer elements than K has.
no fewer than twenty elements.
F can have no jumps exceeding 1/4.
The degree of P exceeds that of Q.
Find the density of the smaller of X and Y.
The smaller of the two satisfies .....
F is dominated (bounded/estimated/majorized) b y .....
5. How much smaller (greater):
25 is 3 greater than 22. 22 is 3 less than 25.
Let an be a sequence of positive integers none of which is one less
than a power of two.
The degree of P exceeds that of Q by at least 2.
/ is greater by a half (a third).
C is less than a third of the distance between.....
35
 Within J, the function / varies (oscillates)
by less than 1.
The upper and lower limits of / differ by at most 1.
We thus have in A one element too many.
On applying this argument k more times, we obtain.....
This method is recently less and less used.
A succession of more and more refined discrete models.
6. How many times as great:
twice (ten times/one third) as long as; half as big as
The longest edge is at most 10 times as long as the shortest one.
A has twice as many elements as B has.
J contains a subinterval of half its length in which.....
A has four times the radius of B.
The diameter of L is 1/k times (twice) that of M .
7. Multiples:
The A>fold integration by parts shows that .....
F covers M twofold.
M is bounded by a multiple of t (a constant times t).
This distance is less than a constant multiple of d.
G acts on H as a multiple, say n, of V.
8. Most, least, greatest, smallest:
F has the most (the fewest) points when....
In most cases it turns out that .....
Most of the theorems presented here are original.
The proofs are, for the most part, only sketched.
Most probably, his method will prove useful i n .....
What most interests us is whether ....
The least such constant is called the norm of / .
This is the least useful of the four theorems.
The method described above seems to be the least complex.
That is the least one can expect.
The elements of A are comparatively big, but least in number.
None of those proofs is easy, and John’s least of all.
The best estimator is a linear combination U such that
var U is smallest possible.
The expected waiting time is smallest i f .....
L is the smallest number such that .....
F has the smallest norm among all / such that .....
K is the largest of the functions which occur in (3).
There exists a smallest algebra with this property.
Find the second largest element in the list L.
36
9. Many, few, a number of:
a large number of illustrations,
There are only a finite number of / with L f = 1.
[Note the a small number of exceptions.
plural.] an infinite number of sets .....
a negligible number of points with .....
Indc is the number of times that c winds around 0.
We give a number of results concerning..... [= some]
This may happen in a number of cases.
They correspond to the values of a countable number of invariants.
..... for all n except a finite number (for all but finitely many n).
Q contains all but a countable number of the f l.
There are only countably many elements q of Q with dom q = 5.
The theorem is fairly general. There are, however, numerous
exceptions.
A variety of other characteristic functions can be constructed in this
way.
There are few exceptions to this rule. [= not many]
Few of various existing proofs are constructive.
He accounts for all the major achievements in topology
over the last few years.
The generally accepted point of view in this domain of
science seems to be changing every few years.
There are a few exceptions to this rule. [= some]
Many interesting examples are known. We now describe
a few of these.
Only a few of those results have been published before.
Quite a few of them are now widely used.
[= A considerable number]
10. Equality, difference:
A equals B or A is equal to B [Not: “A is equal 2?”]
The Laplacian of g is 4r > 0. Then r is about kn.
The inverse of F G is GF. The norms of / and g coincide.
F has the same number of zeros and poles in U .
F and G differ by a linear term (by a scale factor).
The differential of / is different from 0.
Each member of G other than the identity mapping
is .....
F is not identically 0.
Let a, b and c be distinct complex numbers.
Each w is P z for precisely m distinct values of 2 .
37
 Functions which are equal a.e. are indistinguishable as far as
integration is concerned.
11. Numbering:
Exercises 2 to 5 furnish other applications of this technique.
[Amer.: Exercises 2 through 5]
in the third and fourth rows the derivatives up to order k
from line 16 onwards the odd-numbered terms
in lines 16-19
the next-to-last column
the last paragraph but one of the previous proof
1 in the (i,j) entry and zero elsewhere
The matrix with
all entries zero except for N —j at ( N ,j )
This is hinted at in Sections 1 and 2.
quoted on page 36 of [4].
H O W T O AVOID R E P E T IT IO N
1. Repetition of nouns:
Note that the continuity of / implies that of g.
The passage from Riemann’s theory to that of Lebesgue i s .....
The diameter of F is about twice that of G.
His method is similar to that used in our previous paper.
The nature of this singularity is the same as that which / has at
x = 0.
Our results do not follow from those obtained by Lax.
One can check that the metric on T is the one we have just described.
It follows that S is the union of two disks. Let D be the one that
contains.....
The cases p = 1 and p = 2 will be the ones of interest to us.
We prove a uniqueness result, similar to those of the preceding section.
Each of the functions on the right of (2) is one
to which.....
F has many points of continuity. Suppose x is one.
In addition to a contribution to W\, there may be one
to W2.
We now prove that the constant pq cannot be replaced by a smaller
one.
Consider the differences between these integrals and the
corresponding ones with / in place of g.
The geodesics (4) are the only ones that realize the distance between
their endpoints.
On account of the estimate (2) and similar ones which can b e .....
38
We may replace A and B by whichever is the larger of the two.
[Not: “the two ones”]
This inequality applies to conditional expectations as well as to
ordinary ones.
One has to examine the equations (4). If these have no solutions,
then.....
D yields operators D + and D ~ . These are formal adjoints of each
other.
This gives rise to the maps F{. All the other maps are suspensions of
these.
F is the sum of A, B, C and D. The last two of these are zero.
Both / and g are connected, but the latter is in addition compact.
[The latter = the second of two objects]
Both A F and B F were first considered by Banach, but only the
former is referred to as the Banach map, the latter being called
the Hausdorff map.
We have thus proved Theorems 1 and 2, the latter without using.....
Since the vectors G{ are orthogonal to this last space,.....
As a consequence of this last result, .....
Let us consider sets of the type (1), (2), (3) and (4).
These last two are called.....
We shall now describe a general situation in which the last-mentioned
functionals occur naturally.
2. Repetition of adjectives, adverbs or phrases like “x is .....” :
If / and g are measurable functions, then so are f + g and / •g.
The union of measurable sets is a measurable set; so is the complement
of every measurable set.
The group G is compact and so is its image under / .
It is of the same fundamental importance in analysis as is the
construction o f .....
F is bounded but is not necessarily so after division by G.
Show that there are many such Y.
There is only one such series for each y.
Such an h is obtained b y .....
3. Repetition of verbs:
A geodesic which meets bM does so either transversally or .....
This will hold for x > 0 if it does for x = 0.
Note that we have not required that....., and we shall not do so except
when explicitly stated.
The integral might not converge, but it does so after .....
39
 We will show below that the wave equation can be put in this form,
as can many other systems of equations.
The elements of L are not in 5, as they are in the proof o f .....
4. Repetition of whole sentences:
The same is true for / in place of g.
The same being true for / , we can..... [= Since the same.....]
The same holds for (applies to) the adjoint map.
We shall assume that this is the case.
Such was the case in (2).
The L2 theory has more symmetry than is the case
in L l .
Then either..... o r .....In the latter (former) case, ......
For k this is no longer true.
This is not true of (2).
This is not so in other queuing processes.
If this is so, we may add.....
If fi € L and if F = fi + . . . + / n then F € H, and every
F is so obtained.
We would like t o .... If U is open, this can be done.
On 5, this gives the ordinary topology of the plane.
Note that this is not equivalent to .....
[Note the difference between “this” and “it” : you say uit is
not equivalent to” if you are referring to .some object ex­
plicitly mentioned in the preceding sentence.]
F has the stated (desired/claimed) properties.
W O RD ORDER
General remarks: The normal order is: subject + verb + direct object + adverbs in
the order manner-place-time.
Adverbial clauses can also be placed at the beginning of a sentence, and some adverbs
always come between subject and verb. Subject almost always precedes verb,
except in questions and some negative clauses.
1. ADVERBS
la . Between subject and verb, but after "be” ; in compound tenses after
first auxiliary
• Frequency adverbs:
This has already been proved in Section 8.
This result will now be derived computationally.
Every measurable subset of X is again a measure space.
We first prove a reduced form of the theorem.
40
There has since been little systematic work on .....
It has recently been pointed out by Fix that .....
It is sometimes difficult to .....
This usually implies further conclusions about / .
It often does not matter whether.....
• Adverbs like “also” , “therefore” , “thus” :
Our presentation is therefore organized in such a way that .....
The sum in (2), though formally infinite, is therefore actually finite.
One must therefore also introduce the class o f .....
C is connected and is therefore not the union o f .....
These properties, with the exception of (1), also hold
for t.
We will also leave to the reader the verification that .....
> It will thus be sufficient to prove th at.....
(2) implies (3), since one would otherwise obtain k = 0.
The order, of several topics has accordingly been changed.
• Emphatic adverbs ( clearly, obviously, etc.):
It would clearly have been sufficient to assume that .....
F is clearly not an /-set.
Its restriction to N is obviously just / .
This case must of course be excluded.
The theorem evidently also holds if x = 0.
The crucial assumption is that the past history in no
way influences.....
We did not really have to use the existence of T.
The problem is to decide whether (2) really follows
from (1).
The proof is now easily completed.
The maximum is actually attained at some point of M .
We then actually have..... [= We have even more]
At present we will merely show that.....
A stronger result is in fact true.
Throughout integration theory, one inevitably encounters oo.
But H itself can equally well be a member of 5.
lb . After verb— most adverbs of manner:
We conclude similarly that .....
One sees immediately that .....
Much relevant information can be obtained directly from (3).
This difficulty disappears entirely i f .....
This method was used implicitly in random walks.
41
lc. After an object if it is short:
We will prove the theorem directly without using the lemma.
But: We will prove directly a theorem stating that .....
This is true for every sequence that shrinks to x nicely.
Define F g analogously as the limit o f .....
(2) defines g unambiguously for every gf.
Id. At the beginning— adverbs referring to the whole sentence:
Incidentally, we have now constructed.....
Actually, Theorem 3 gives more, namely.....
Finally, (2) shows that / = g. [Not: “At last”]
Nevertheless, it turns out that .....
Next, let V be the vector space o f .....
More precisely, Q consists o f .....
Explicitly (Intuitively), this means that .....
Needless to say, the boundedness of / was assumed only
for simplicity.
Accordingly, either / is asymptotically dense o r .....
le. In front of adjectives— adverbs describing them:
a slowly varying function
probabilistically significant problems
a method better suited for dealing with.....
F and G are similarly obtained from H.
F has a rectangularly shaped graph.
Three-quarters of this area is covered by subsequently
chosen cubes. [Note the singular.]
lf. “only”
We need the openness only to prove the following.
It reduces to the statement that only for the distribution F do the
maps F{ satisfy (2). [Note the inversion.]
In this chapter we will be concerned only with.....
In (3) the X j assume the values 0 and 1 only.
If (iii) is required for finite unions only, then.....
We need only require (5) to hold for bounded sets.
The proof of (2) is similar, and will only be indicated briefly.
To prove (3), it only remains to verify.....
2. ADVERBIAL CLAUSES
2a. At the beginning:
In testing the character o f ....., it is sometimes difficult t o .....
For n = 1, 2, . . . , consider a family o f .....
42
2b. At the end (normal position):
The averages of Fn become small in small neighbourhoods of x.
2c. Between subject and verb, but after first auxiliary— only short clauses:
The observed values of X will on the average cluster around .....
This could in principle imply an advantage.
For simplicity, we will for the time being accept as F only C 2 maps.
Accordingly we are in effect dealing with .....
The knowledge of / is at best equivalent to .....
The stronger result is in fact true.
It is in all respects similar to matrix multiplication.
2d. Between verb and object if the latter is long:
It suffices for our purposes to assume.....
To a given density on the line there corresponds on the circle the
density given b y .....
3. INVERSION AND OTHER PECULIARITIES
3a. Adjective or past participle after a noun:
Let Y be the complex X with the origin removed.
Theorems 1 and 2 combined give a theorem.....
We now show that G is in the symbol class indicated.
We conclude by the part of the theorem already proved that .....
The bilinear form so defined extends to .....
Then for A sufficiently small we have.....
By queue length we mean the number of customers present including
the customer being served.
The description is the same with the roles of A and B reversed.
3b. Direct object or adjectival clause placed farther than usual— when
they are long:
We must add to the right side of (3) the probability that .....
This is equivalent to defining in the 2 -plane a density with .....
Denote for the moment by / the element satisfying.....
F is the restriction to D of the unique linear m ap.....
The probability at birth of a lifetime exceeding t is at most .....
3c. Inversion in some negative clauses:
We do not assume that ....., nor do we assume a priori that .....
Neither is the problem simplified by assuming / = g.
The “if” part now follows from (3), since at no point can S exceed
the larger of X and Y.
The fact that for no x does F x contain y implies that .....
43
 In no case does the absence of a reference imply any claim to F {x ) = G(x) for all x e X .
originality on my part. Let F be a nontrivial continuous linear operator in V.
3d. Inversion— other examples:
2. Comma required:
F is compact and so is G. The proof of (3) depends on the notion of M - space, which has already
If / , g are measurable, then so are f + g and / •g. been used in [4].
We will use the map H , which has all the properties required.
Only for / = 1 can one expect to obtain There is only one such / , and (4) defines a map from.....
does that limit exist.
3e. Adjective in front of “be”— for emphasis: In fact, we can do even better.
In this section, however, we will not use it explicitly.
By far the most important is the case where.....
Much more subtle are the following results of John. Moreover, F is countably additive.
Essential to the proof are certain topological properties of M . Finally, (d) and (e) are consequences of (4).
Nevertheless, he succeeded in proving that .....
3f. Subject coming sooner than in some other languages: Conversely, suppose that .....
Equality occurs in (1) iff / is constant. Consequently, (2) takes the form.....
The natural question arises whether it is possible t o ..... In particular, / also satisfies (1).
In the following applications use will be made o f ..... Guidance is also given, whenever necessary or helpful, on further
Recently proofs have been constructed which use..... reading.
3g. Incomplete clause at the beginning or end of a sentence: This observation, when looked at from a more general point of view,
leads t o .....
Put differently, the moments of arrival of the lucky customers con­
stitute a renewal process. It follows that / , being convex, cannot satisfy (3).
Rather than discuss this in full generality, let us look at ..... If e = 1, which we may assume, then.....
It is important that the tails of F and G are of comparable magnitude, We can assume, by decreasing k if necessary, that ....
a statement made more precise by the following inequalities. Then (5) shows, by Fubini’s theorem, that .....
Put this way, the question is not precise enough.
W HERE T O IN SER T A C O M M A Being open, V is a union of disjoint boxes.
General rules: Do not over-use commas— English usage requires them less often than This is a special case of (4), the space X here being B (K ).
in many other languages. Do not use commas around a clause that defines (limits, In [2], X is assumed to be compact.
makes more precise) some part of a sentence. Put commas before and after non­ For all x , G{x) is convex.
defining clauses (i.e. ones which can be left out without damage to the sense). [Comma between two symbols.]
Put a comma where its lack may lead to ambiguity, e.g. between two symbols. In the context already referred to, i f is the complex field.
1. Comma not required: [Comma to avoid ambiguity.]
We shall now prove that / is proper. 3. Comma optional:
The fact that / has radial limits was proved in [4]. By Theorem 2, there exists an h such that.....
It is reasonable to ask whether this holds for <7 = 1.
For z near 0, we have.....
M is the set of all maps which take values in V .
There is a polynomial P such that P f = g. If h is smooth, then M is compact.
The element given by (3) is of the form (5). Since h is smooth, M is compact.
Let M be the manifold to whose boundary / maps K . It is possible to use (4) here, but it seems preferable to .....
Take an element all of whose powers are in S. This gives (3), because (since) we may assume.....
F is called proper if G is dense. Integrating by parts, we obtain.....
There exists a D such that D x y H whenever H xyG. To do this, p u t.....

44 45
 X , Y, and Z are compact. Since / = 0 then M is closed ^ Since / = 0, M is closed
X = FG, where F is defined by .. [Or: Since / = 0, we conclude that M is closed]
Thus (Hence/Therefore), we have ....., as it is shown in Sec. 2 ^ ..... , as is shown in Sec. 2
Every function being an element of X is convex
Every function which is an element of X is convex
SO M E T Y P IC A L ERRORS Setting n = p, the equation can b e .....
1. Spelling errors: ^ Setting n = p, we can..... [Because we set.]
Spelling should be consistent, either British or American throughout: 3. Wrong word used:
We now give few examples [= not many]
Br.: colour, neighbour, centre, fibre, labelled, modelling
We now give a few examples [= some]
Amer.: color, neighbor, center, fiber, labeled, modeling
Summing (2) and (3) by sides Summing (2) and (3)
an unified approach a unified approach In the first paragraph In the first section
a M such that an M such that ....., which proves our thesis
[Use “a” or “an” according to pronunciation.] ...... which proves our assertion (conclusion/statement)
2. Grammatical errors: [thesis = dissertation]
For n big enough For n large enough
Let / denotes •*+ Let / denote To this aim ^ To this end
Most of them is *** Most of them are At first, note that First, note that
There is a finite number of There are a finite number of At last, we obtain Finally, we obtain
In 1964 Lax has shown In 1964 Lax showed For every two elements For any two elements
[Use the past tense if a date is given.] ....., what completes the proof ..... , which completes the proof
The Taylor’s formula Taylor’s formula [Or: the Taylor formula] ....., what is impossible •*+..... , which is impossible
The section 1 ^ Section 1 4. Wrong word order:
Such map exists Such a map exists [But: for every such map] The described above condition The condition described above
In the case M is compact ^ In case M is compact
[Or: In the case where M is compact] The both conditions Both conditions, Both the conditions
In case of smooth norms In the case of smooth norms Its both sides Both its sides
We are in the position to prove ^ We are in a position to prove The three first rows w The first three rows
F is equal G F is equal to G [Or: F equals G] The two following sets The following two sets
F is greater or equal to G F is greater than or equal to G This map we denote by f ^ We denote this map by /
Continuous in the point x ^ Continuous at x 5. Other examples:
Disjoint with B Disjoint from B We have (obtain) that B i s .....
Equivalent with B Equivalent to B We see (conclude/deduce/find/infer) that B i s .....
Independent on B w Independent of B We are done w The proof is complete.
[But: depending on B]
Similar a sB ^ Similar to B
Similarly to Sec. 2
As (Just as) in Sec. 2
Similarly as in Sec. 2 As is the case in Sec. 2
In much the same way as
in Sec. 2
On Fig. 3 ^ In Fig. 3
In the end of Sec. 2 At the end of Sec. 2

46 47
 IN D E X
a, an, 23, 46 generality, 10 print, 8
accordingly, 13 greater, 35
actually, 19, 41 same, 36, 40
half, 35 say, 11
adjectival clauses, 9
have, 26 second largest, 36
adverbial clauses, 42
“have that” , 15, 16, 47 section, 4, 47
adverbs, 40
hence, 15, 46 short-cuts, 20
a few, 37, 47
all, 32 shortly, 7
if necessary, 11
also, 41 imperative, 16 similar, 16, 46
a number of, 37, 46 in a position, 17, 46 similarly, 46
any, 33 since, 15, 47
independent of, 8, 46
as, 15, 18, 27 smaller, 35
induction, 14
as is, 39, 47 in fact, 13 smallest possible, 36
at first, 42, 47 so is, 10, 39
infinitive, 10, 17, 27, 29
at last, 42 some, 33
introduction, 4
avoid, 30 succeed, 30
inversion, 9, 10, 33, 42, 43
such, 39, 46
it, 18, 19, 28, 40
because, 15 such that, 8
it follows that, 15
being, 9, 30, 47
both, 33, 47 largest, 36 that, 38
brackets, 8 the, 24
last but one, 38
the one, 38
latter, 39, 40
cardinal numbers, 34 therefore, 15, 41, 46
least, 34, 36
case, 40, 46 there is, 33
less, 35
contradiction, 14, 18 these, 39
let, 46
denote, 7 likely, 28 thesis, 18, 20, 47
depending on, 8 the two, 34, 39
matrices, 38 this, 40
differ, 36, 37
more, 36 this last, 39
disjoint from, 46
most, 34, 36, 46 those, 38
distinct, 37
multiple, 36 thus, 15, 41, 46
each, 32 to be defined, 9, 28
need, 17, 29
either, 34 too, 27
neither, 9, 34, 43
enable, 29 to this end, 14, 47
next-to-last, 38
enough, 8, 27 twice as long as, 36
no, 33
equal, 37, 46 two-thirds, 35
no greater, 35
errors, 46 typefaces, 8
none, 33
every, 32, 47
nor, 9, 10, 43 unique, 24, 34
few, 37, 47 numbering, 26, 38 union, 25
fewer, 35 unlikely, 28
finally, 42, 47 “obtain that” , 15, 16, 47
of, 25, 26, 29 up to, 35, 38
finish, 30
one, 23, 38 what, 15, 18, 47
fc-fold, 36
only, 29, 42 which, 15, 18,x47
following, 13, 19, 20, 47
for, 11, 28 ordinal numbers, 25, 34, 38 with, 26
former, 39, 40 paragraph, 4, 47 worth, 30
for short, 7 participles, 30 worth while, 30
fractions, 35 percent, 35

48